Business Directories

Sustainability 'core factor for UAE real estate'

Doha, May 27, 2013

Sustainability is a core factor for the UAE real estate and infrastructure projects as the market gets benefited from growth in tourism, hospitality and trade, said industry experts at a Doha Bank summit in Dubai.

"The UAE is undergoing stabilization and has resurged from the property bubble, supported by tighter controls and more cautious optimism in the market, remarked Doha Bank Group CEO Dr R Seetharaman while delivering the inaugural address.

The Qatari lender hosted a series of GCC summits last week on real estate, infrastructure and urban planning which brought together some of the region’s leading consultants and advisory firms to discuss opportunities and trends in the property industry.

The key presenters were officials from Damac Properties, Morgan Stanley, The Boston Consulting Group, KEO, PKF-TCH Group and the Qatar Green Building Council.

Dr Seetharaman highlighted the trends impacting projects and infrastructure development in the UAE.

"A clear indication of the success of the UAE’s strategy can be seen in the Dubai Land Department’s impressive statistics for the first quarter of 2013 that show a 63 per cent growth in the total value of transactions made reaching Dh44 billion, with the number of transactions carried out totalling 14,260 – at a rate of 223 per day and 32 per hour, which is phenomenal," he added.

In his remarks, Damac founder Hussain Sajwani said the UAE’s property and projects market was benefiting from growth in tourism, hospitality and trade particularly as Dubai and Abu Dhabi were key business hubs in the region.

"The country is witnessing better performance in terms of both value and rental yield in selected projects and this is partly due to positive customer sentiment and partly due to the efforts of the developers to ensure a sustainable marketplace and seek quality buyers. It is an often overlooked fact that Dubai in particular, with Abu Dhabi catching up fast, is still one of the most sought after global property markets," he stated.

Ed Senior, a VP in Morgan Stanley's Global Capital Markets Group said while global property and infrastructure finance is still recovering the UAE presents a different business case and one that is already flourishing. He said funding markets are changing due to the Euro Crisis and Basel III.

He pointed out that the UAE banks have been growing strongly in the past few years.

"During his presentation, he cited the loan books of a Europe-based bank and an Abu Dhabi-based bank which were on par during 2008.

"At the end of 2012, the UAE Bank had grown its loan book 48 per cent since 2008, while the European bank ended the period down 47 per cent from its 2008 loan book," he added.-TradeArabia News Service